Unsettled Settled Spaces: Searching for a Theoretical ‘Home’ for Rural-Urban Fringes.

Abstract

Rapid urban population growth has led not only to an increasing demand for urban land, particularly for housing, but also for other various urban uses. And that in many countries, the increasing demand for land is affecting rural-urban fringes. This paper attempts to situate the rural-urban fringe within the urban context by reviewing literature and theories on urban land use. The review of literature is guided by the view that there is no single dominant theory or paradigm of land use change and development. A multiple conceptual review of different literature sources on land, housing, economic, urban, among others is done with the aim to derive partial insights on different aspects of a ruralurban fringe. The adoption of a multiple conceptual review provided insights into mechanisms of a rural-urban fringe land uses from different theoretical perspectives, with each emphasizing different but related aspects. Accordingly, within each of four substantive sections of this paper, the review organises the commentary by ideas drawn from different contexts. The review thus is not aimed at comparing or contrasting various aspects of rural-urban fringes in different regions and countries but to build a case for what a rural-urban fringe and how issues within it can be understood. The theoretical approaches reviewed in this paper may aid in the conceptualisation of different aspects of the rural-urban fringe land uses, designing the research methodology and in the analyses of field experiences, rather than to prove the theories themselves.